New analysis shows that women and non-binary students at Cambridge are significantly less likely than men to obtain a first at the end of their undergraduate degrees.

A survey of over 1,400 current students, coordinated by CUSU Women’s Campaign, has underlined the existence of potentially serious institutional problems facing women and non-binary students.

The campaign claims that the survey is the “first ever large-scale research on students’ perspectives of the impact of gender on teaching, learning and student wellbeing at the University of Cambridge”. 

The data suggests that it is not only in areas such as sexual violence or gender imbalance in STEM subjects where Cambridge University is failing to achieve gender equality, with the report highlighting statistics showing that 29% of men received firsts compared to 20% of women in the academic year of 2013-2014.

While the gender attainment gap has been a long-standing area of concern for all involved within the University, the 30-page long report – entitled ‘Mind the Gap: student experiences of sexism within teaching and learning at Cambridge University’ - represents the first student-led research project to be conducted into determining its root causes.

The report states that 1 in 3 women do not feel that Cambridge provides an environment that allows them to work to the best of their ability, and also claims that women students are twice as likely to feel they struggle with learning new ideas as men.

The results also show that mental health issues – another long-standing area of concern among students and staff within the University – are more prevalent among certain groups of students, with nearly half of women and 90 percent of student respondents who described their gender as ‘other’ feeling that their mental health negatively impacts the amount of work they are able to do, compared to one third of men.

Amelia Horgan, CUSU Women’s Officer for 2014-5, said the report aims to consolidate and better represent the content of what was hitherto just “anecdotal evidence of women and non-binary students feeling that their experiences at Cambridge had eroded their confidence in their academic ability and left them feeling isolated and frustrated”.

Dedicating the report “to every student who finishes their degree feeling less intelligent and less worthy than when they did at matriculation”, Horgan argues in the report that it is a “decades-long problem that has shown no signs of improvement”.

While CUSU has recommended further research and called for the university to conduct continued data monitoring to reinforce the conclusions of its findings, the report’s authors also highlight what they call an urgent need for a review of teaching and assessment methods, including analysis of how the current system of intense final examinations may unfairly impact women.

As Varsity reported earlier this month, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Education, Professor Graham Virgo, is currently conducting a “root and branch” review into examination procedures, including what Professor Virgo called “further investigation of concerns about disparate performance by gender”.

Other findings in the report included that 27% of women felt that their supervision partners spoke over them compared to 14% of men and 22% of ‘other’ respondents and 1 in 4 women felt their classmates spoke over them.

While only 65% of women, 67% of ‘other’ respondents and 76% of men felt their ideas were listened to in classes, 1 in 5 women reported that they felt unable to make points in classes at all.

There were also issues of concern raised for other student campaigns, with the survey finding that BME women were less likely to feel they were in a supportive learning environment than white women.

CUSU concluded its report by attempting to outline changes it felt could lead to further improvements, including the introduction of a more diverse curriculum and better training and support for all staff involved in teaching, specifically on the subject of managing gender dynamics.

Charlotte Chorley, CUSU Women's Officer for 2015-16, has welcomed the findings.

“For too long, women students have been let down, institutionally and academically, by the University,” she said, arguing that it illustrated “systematic barriers to equal opportunities of success” that must be “taken seriously” by the university authorities. 

A university spokesperson, however, disputed her conclusion.

“This report fails to take account of the significant work already being done by the University and its plans for the future,” they told Varsity.

Though the University acknowledges the existence of a gender attainment gap “in some academic disciplines”, they argue that “men also have a significantly higher chance of being awarded a Third than women in some academic disciplines.”

As well as reaffirming that that the gender attainment gap was “specifically being considered” as part of Professor Virgo's review, they told us that CUSU's report would be considered as part of the next Equality and Diversity in Education Sub-Committee of the General Board's Education Committee, a sub-committee to which the Women's Officer is a member.

“The Sub-Committee will be continuing its significant work on gender attainment in exams and will continue to work closely with Faculties and Departments,” they continued. “A working group on student workload which was established last year, and which is chaired by the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education, will also be addressing some of the other issues discussed in the report.”